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Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel, original art from 'The Incredible Hulk' #180, final page 32: the first-ever appearance of Wolverine. Auctioned by Heritage on May 16, 2014 for $657,250. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions

First Wolverine art page brings world record $657,250 at Heritage

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson

Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel, original art from 'The Incredible Hulk' #180, final page 32: the first-ever appearance of Wolverine. Auctioned by Heritage on May 16, 2014 for $657,250. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel, original art from ‘The Incredible Hulk’ #180, final page 32: the first-ever appearance of Wolverine. Auctioned by Heritage on May 16, 2014 for $657,250. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
DALLAS – The original artwork featuring the first ever appearance of Wolverine, by artists Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel, on the final page of The Incredible Hulk #180 (1974), arguably the most important debut of a comic book character in the last 40 years, tied a record for any page of American comic art and set a world record price for any page of interior comic art, by far, when it brought $657,250 (including 19.5% Buyer’s Premium) on May 16, 2014, at Heritage Auctions in Dallas.

It was sold to East Coast collector Thomas Fish, a sports card dealer.

“We knew when this artwork surfaced that is was, without doubt, one of the most significant pieces of original comic art ever drawn,” said Todd Hignite, Vice President of Heritage Auctions. “It has now brought a final price realized commensurate with that status.”

The final price realized by the piece ties the world record price also set by Heritage in July of 2012 for Todd McFarlane’s original 1990 cover art for The Amazing Spider-Man #328.

Another world record price was set in the auction for the highest price ever realized at auction for a piece of original comic strip art when Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip original art, dated Aug. 28. 1938 (King Features Syndicate, 1938), a piece used to create a USPS 1995 comic strip classics stamp, decimated its $50,000+ pre-auction estimate to realize $215,100.

The top comic book offering in the auction came in the form of an exceedingly rare copy of Wonder Comics #1 (Fox, 1939) CGC NM 9.4, which realized $68,713. The issue featured the debut of Wonder Man, who appeared on the stands at the very same time as Batman, who premiered in Detective Comics #27. The Wonder Man character was perceived by the competition at DC Comics as having ridden on the coat-tails of their prized character Superman. Accordingly, Wonder Comics publisher Victor Fox was slapped with a lawsuit by DC (national Periodical) for infringement on the Superman character, causing Fox to withdraw his creation from future issues.

Further highlights of the Heritage sale included Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland Sunday comic strip original art dated 1906 (New York Herald, 1906), which brought $89,625, a new price record for the artist; Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers’ Incredible Hulk #5 Tyrannus “Beauty and the Beast” splash Page 1 original art (Marvel, 1962), finishing at $71,700; and the original art to a Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, this one dated May 9, 1987 (Universal Press Syndicate, 1987), which doubled its’ $20,000+ to bring $47,800; and All-American Comics #16 (DC, 1940) CGC VG- 3.5, the key first appearance of Green Lantern, which realized $44,813.

Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s third largest, with annual sales of more than $900 million, and 850,000+ online bidder members. Visit them online at www.ha.com.

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